WOOD RIVER - As the holiday season draws closer, various food pantries and assistance centers are finding it difficult to fill their shelves with the necessary items to keep the most underprivileged members of the community fed.
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One week after local Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts of America troops placed blue shopping bags on the doors of residences around the area, the dedicated boys and young men came to collect canned goods to replenish some of the local shelter’s shelves for the annual Scouting for Food campaign.
“This is one of the scouts’ most visible services projects throughout the year,” adult Scout Scott Pulaski said. “It’s a huge source for the local pantries that they may otherwise not get. Helping people in the community is the best and most important part.”
Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts from the Lewis & Clark Council gathered at St. John United Church of Christ to divide the area’s streets into manageable sections for the boys and their families.
Cub Scoutmaster Tara Barboza shared the importance of the young boys getting involved in their community.
“It shows the kids what it means to give back to where they came from and that some people aren’t as lucky as they are,” Barboza said.
Despite the rainy and at times snowy weather, the troops made their way across the area collecting those blue bags, which were now filled with canned goods and placed on porches, sidewalks and stairs outside of homes.
“The boys have an opportunity to help out in such an easy way,” Barboza said.
After the items are all collected, they will be sorted and counted back at St. John.
“We will all take the food down, as a group, to Operation Blessing Food Pantry,” Boy Scouts Scoutmaster Brad Pulaski said.
At the end of the day, this particular group donated just shy of 2,300 items to the Wood River food pantry. Their scout district, which stretches from Edwardsville to Greenfield, collected around 67,000 items. As a whole, the Lewis & Clark Council collected a whomping 422,000 items.
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